Tensions Flare as Bosnian Serb Accuses Fellow Ex-Fighters of Massacre

Mico Jovicic, a wartime volunteer fighter for Bosnian Serb forces, told Belgrade Higher Court that all five defendants on trial for the kidnapping and killing of 20 passengers from a train at Strpci station in Bosnia and Herzegovina were at the crime scenes when the offences were committed.

The testimony on Monday and Tuesday from Jovicic, who is currently serving a five-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to the same crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sparked anger from the defendants and disputes flared in the courtroom.

Jovicic named defendants Gojko Lukic, Dusko and Gojko Vasiljevic, Jovan Lipovac and Dragana Djekic as being present when the crimes were committed. Apart from Lipovac, who was a Bosnian Serb Army soldier, they were all members of the Avengers paramilitary unit.

According to the indictment, on February 27, 1993, a group of fighters came to the train station at Strpci, near the Bosnia-Serbia border, and forced the train dispatcher to stop a train from Belgrade that was passing by on its way to Montenegro.

Some of them entered the carriages, started identifying passengers by their identity documents, and took 20 non-Serbs off the train. All of them were subsequently killed.

Jovicic told the court how he and his co-fighter Nebojsa Ranisavljevic were ordered by Avengers leader Milan Lukic and fellow fighter Boban Indjic to go to Stprci station. Jovicic said he did not go into the train but put seized passengers into a truck.

The truck took the passengers to a primary school in Prelovo. Jovicic said he stayed in front of the school to smoke a cigarette but went in when he heard screams.

In the school gym, he said he saw Milan Lukic beating one civilian, while the other passengers were lined up and hit with...